No place for Vaughan or Harmison

Vaughan and out

Breaking news today is that both Steve Harmison and Michael Vaughan have been left out of the Ashes training party. This surely indicates that they will not be selected for the Ashes this summer and also points to a possible career ending omission.

With the first Test a matter of weeks away this is a significant smack in the face for the former England captain. Vaughan was in charge four years ago when England beat Australia for the first time since 1989 and the news will come as a huge blow to the top order batsman.

Panesar, Swann and Rashid all have a chance of impressing the selectors for the spinner slot but Harmison, who was dropped ahead of the West Indies Test series fails to do enough and is out of contention.

Graham Onions, Tim Bresnan and Ryan Sidebottom have been preferred to Harmison as back-up to first-choice seamers James Anderson and Stuart Broad.

National selector Geoff Miller said: “Michael Vaughan will, of course, be disappointed not to have been included. But I met with Michael recently and he understands that he needs to make runs consistently in County cricket if he is to force his way back into the squad.

“The door has not been closed on any player at this stage.”

Despite not making the first choice squad, Harmison has been included to play for the England Lions against Australia on the 1^st of July – a tough warm up game for both sides with the Test a week away.

Miller added: “We are keen to make the match at Worcester a tough one for Australia and plan to give all the players in the Lions team the maximum opportunity to press their case for selection.

“As a consequence, we will now be announcing our squad for the first Ashes Test on Sunday, 5 July – 24 hours later than originally planned.”

England Test squad for the pre-Ashes camp:

Andrew Strauss (captain) (Middlesex), James Anderson (Lancashire), Ian Bell (Warwickshire), Ravinder Bopara (Essex), Tim Bresnan (Yorkshire), Stuart Broad (Nottinghamshire), Paul Collingwood (Durham), Alastair Cook (Essex), Andrew Flintoff (Lancashire), Graham Onions (Durham), Monty Panesar (Northamptonshire), Kevin Pietersen (Hampshire), Matt Prior (Sussex), Adil Rashid (Yorkshire), Ryan Sidebottom (Nottinghamshire), Graeme Swann (Nottinghamshire).

England team v Warwickshire at Edgbaston (July 1-3):

Andrew Strauss (captain), James Anderson, Stuart Broad, Ravi Bopara, Paul Collingwood, Alastair Cook, Andrew Flintoff, Monty Panesar, Kevin Pietersen, Matt Prior, Graeme Swann.

England Lions v Australia at Worcester (July 1-4):

Ian Bell (captain) (Warwickshire), Tim Bresnan (Yorkshire), Joe Denly (Kent), Steven Davies (Worcestershire), Stephen Harmison (Durham), Sajid Mahmood (Lancashire), Stephen Moore (Worcestershire), Eoin Morgan (Middlesex), Graham Onions (Durham), Adil Rashid (Yorkshire), Vikram Solanki (Worcestershire).

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